Photo Update for February!

Caleb & Justus started Khmer school!

Justus fell asleep during story time. 

Caleb lost a tooth!

We ate freshly-BBQ'd squid at our staff retreat!

Justus, Caleb and a friend at the staff retreat.

Caleb swimming in the ocean.

New School for Caleb & Justus

 As of last Monday, both Caleb and Justus have been attending our church's
Cambodian Christian school every morning. This is a decision that has been
quite a while in coming, but the main goal of this is to get them speaking
and understanding more Khmer.

The decision really became aparent to us one Sunday morning at church. As we were there at church, Angie realized that even though Caleb have been here
in Cambodia since he was 1 1/2, he is still unable to understand the
majority of what is being said every Sunday. All these good things are said
and taught every Sunday and Caleb is missing out on it.

Over the years, we have tried some different ways for Caleb to improve in
his spoken Khmer, but it has been very slow growth. We had him study with a
couple of other friends, but that didn't last real long. Caleb has also made
a couple of good Cambodian friends in our church and he knows some
conversational Khmer, but his Khmer isn't continuing to improve like we'd
like.

So, we decided to enroll both Caleb and Justus in New Life School and
because of their limited understanding, we have started Caleb in the
Kindergarten class and Justus in the preschool class.

On the very first day, Caleb adjusted just fine and had a great time, but
Justus had a hard time going into his class, so he spent most of the morning
in Caleb's class. On the second day, Justus had a hard time leaving home to
go to school, but after he did, he had a great day in school. On the third
day, both of them left the house without a problem and had a great day.

For us parents . . . 

Every morning, we send the two boys off with a friend of ours who takes them
over to the school and then either Angie or I pick them up just before
lunch. It's been a little bit difficult for Angie and I to see both of our
boys leave the house every morning, but it's good for them and it's good for
us. We are really excited to see what is going to happen with them and how
their Khmer language skills are going to improve dramatically

Back in Cambodia

Well, we arrived in Phnom Penh late Friday night and things went great on our trip.

Right from the moment that we checked in in Portland, we felt God's blessings.

For Christmas, I got Angie something that she really wanted. This something was for her personally, but also for her ministry in Cambodia. It is a new electric piano.

However, as much of a blessing the piano was for Angie, it came with another challenge - getting it over to Cambodia. Since it is a full-sized electric piano, it is over-sized and over-weight for a normal piece of luggage. But, we went to the airport knowing this and being prepared to pay the extra $360 that Korean Air said it was going to cost us.

Well, when we got to the check-in counter, we had a good chat with the lady who worked there. She helped us out a lot. The first bit of good news was that we could check our bags all the way through and we didn't have to pick them up in LA. However, she initially said that we would have to pick up our bags in Seoul since our layover there was just over 12 hours. After about 15 minutes, she worked her magic and was able to get our bags checked all the way through to Phnom Penh. This was another bit of good news because we had 9 checked bags and the piano. Can you imagine Angie and I and the kids trying to wrestle all those bags through the airport in Seoul? We were very grateful that we didn't have to do that.

Finally, the lady printed out the baggage tags for all of our bags and put them on our suitcases. Then, she printed out the last one and stuck it on the piano box.

I asked her, "What about the piano? It's over-sized and over-weight."

She answered with a smile on her face, "We're just going to forget about that."

Well, that was the beginning of a very blessed trip. The kids slept on every flight, we were able to find a comfortable transit hotel in Seoul to rest, relax and clean up, and all of our bags met us in Phnom Penh without a problem.

God is so good to us. We feel like his kids and he's just taking care of us.

Since we arrived back here in Cambodia, we went to church on Sunday (it was so great seeing all of our friends again) and we are taking another day or two to recover from the jet lag.

Thanks so much to each of you who prayed for us. Very soon, we'll be back in the swing of things helping to expand the Kingdom of God in the kingdom of Cambodia

Merry Christmas - Kids' Korner Style

Christmas is right around the corner and we want to wish you all a very, Merry Christmas.This is Caleb, Justus and Emma here once again and we also want to tell you some of the adventures that we have been up to.

Emma - "I've been real busy going here and there with my Mom and Dad and brothers these past few weeks. Most of the time, during the day, we get to stay at home and mostly just relax. But in the evenings, we have been going out to many different people's houses. Mom and Dad talk about Cambodia a lot. I know that they are happy to be here, but it seems like they miss Cambodia and I think that they are looking forward to going back there.
It's been fun getting to meet new people. Lots of times the people that we are visiting have kids too, so I get to make new friends while we're here. I'm pretty comfortable wherever we go, but it's always nice to know that Mom and Dad are close by.
The other day, Mommy called Cambodia to talk to one of my Cambodian aunties named Chanthy. While they were talking to each other in Khmer, I was able to understand some of the things that they were saying. Mommy said that I did really good!"

Justus - "Last weekend, Papa and Grammy took us up to the mountains to play in the snow. It was a lot of fun, but it was really cold. We made a snowman and Papa and Daddy made a snow fort for Caleb and I, so we hid in that and threw snowballs at Papa and Daddy.
We've also had a little bit of snow in the city. We haven't gotten very much, and it hasn't stuck around for long, but it is really pretty to see it falling down from the sky. Daddy always likes to go outside and watch it come down. Daddy thinks that we might get some more in the next couple of days or two, but we'll just have to wait and see. Maybe we'll have a white Christmas!"

Caleb - "We've been having lots of fun with Papa and Grammy, but I've still been doing my school work. I get to take a break for a couple of days for Christmas though, so I'm looking forward to that.
One of the things that is fun is that Papa and Grammy have lots of fun games to play. One of the ones that I'm really good at is Battleship. I've played many times with Grammy and Daddy too. I've won some and lost some, but Daddy has taught me some good strategies, so I can almost beat anyone I play.
Since I've been doing so good at that game, Daddy has now started teaching me another game called Risk. We haven't played that one lots and lots, but I'm starting to understand that and I invite anyone who passes by to sit down and play a game with me. It's lots of fun."

"Christmas is just a few days away now and we want to make sure that we thank all of you for all of your love and hospitality while we've been here in North America. Our family is greatly blessed by all of you and it's so fun to spend time with all of you. We hope that you all have a great Christmas and that God's richest blessings are on you all as we remember our Saviour this Christmas."

Merry Christmas!

Caleb, Justus and Emma (and Mommy and Daddy too!)